Case Chronicle
by ChrysantheC
Summary: Harry and co, as teamed Aurors strive to solve mysterious cases that were handed to them, along the way Draco comes into the picture, and many, many more. AU. Ignores DH. SLASH. Harry/Draco eventually.


**Title:** Case Chronicle

**Rating:** R for the moment

**Pairing:** Harry/Draco (eventually) as main pairing, side pairings of Ron/Hermione, Dean/Ginny (for the moment), may be adding more as the story goes.

**Genre:** Suspense/Crime

**Summary:** Harry and co, as teamed Aurors strive to solve mysterious cases that were handed to them, along the way Draco comes into the picture, and many, many more.

**Warning:** slight AU, profanity, violence, death, gore (though not every case) drugs and poison, illegal activities (such as smuggling and those sorts) Ignores DH.

**BEWARE:** Possible!Bugs (I'd say that's a definite though...)

**Disclaimer:** All HP characters belong to the brilliant and Warner Bros. and all associates. Nothing's mine. Well, except probably some OC's. (If I intended to create any).

**Case Plot Disclaimer:** This will appear if I took some inspiration from some crime/suspense related media and/or books, as for this first case, apparently there aren't any inspirations, yet.

**This fic is currently unbeta-ed. **(My Beta disppeared on me... T.T)

* * *

**Case One – Poison**

**Chapter One – Foreign Poison**

_Auror Office, Department of Magical Law Enforcements, Ministry of Magic, Britain_

It was a fine day. The breeze blowing into the opened window through the flipped shutters, picking up the fresh air outside and bringing into the office a pleasant cooling air that suppressed the dry heat of summer days.

Harry was making himself a cup of coffee when someone – revealed to be Neville Longbottom, who chose to become an Auror just like his parents upon leaving Hogwarts – came into the tea room carrying an empty mug, greeting Harry as he passed him and went towards the teapot which was settled on the counter opposite where Harry was standing, and poured himself some tea.

Harry had done making his coffee, black with no sugar – which was his favourite – as to dissipate any remaining sleepiness in the morning, and turned around to face Neville.

"Lovely day, don't you think?" He sipped his coffee and closed his eyes to breathe in the morning air.

Neville gave a nod and smiled as he made his way to Harry. "Yeah, sure is. It's been a while since we last seen any fine days like this." They chatted along the way while they made it back to their respective office.

Harry settled down at his desk, put the cup of now already half-full coffee down before he reached up and stretched, feeling his muscles and tendons twitch and hearing his joints and knuckles crack as he worked them.

"You think there will be any criminal cases today? I hope not, this weather is making me lazy." Neville quipped.

Harry rolled his neck back and forth, still in the process of relieving his tense muscles from last night's not-too-long sleep. These days he hardly get any sleep at all, as Dark Wizards still seem to be running around the continent even after all these years since the defeat of Voldemort. He breathed a sigh as he sat back up, leaning his elbows on the desk and clasping his hands together, and then answered. "Can't count on it. Any moment now Seamus probably would be running in here and screaming murder."

It was quite a surprise when the whole dorm who shared with Harry during their Hogwarts times together claimed that they will all be entering Ministry jobs. And pleasant enough, they were lucky when the Department of Law Enforcement granted each and every one of them the qualification of becoming full-time Aurors. And more of a surprise when one year later, Ginny was announced the same position and joined the boys, becoming Neville's partner in investigations since he was the only one who wasn't placed in a pair on default upon arrival. Since then they have unbashfully seized up the whole Auror office all to themselves.

As if on cue, the minute Harry finished uttering the last syllable of the last word of his speech, Seamus Finnigan rushed through the office's wide double-door, face a bright scarlet which was needless to say came from his running.

He halted at the joint where the office opens up its space from the entrance aisle, bent over with his hands on his knees and huffing out short pants, trying to catch his breath before he could speak. After a while he straightened up, swallowed and met Harry's gaze, who rolled his eyes before he looked at him, and Neville shaking his head smiling at him, and then opened his mouth and spoke, "A case! Dead body found at The Three Broomsticks!"

Harry cursed under his breath, scolding himself for being a doomsayer while grabbing his cloak and strode towards the door without further exchange of words, which Neville followed, and the three of them headed straight out of the Ministry to the apparition point.

On their way there Harry asked Seamus where their missing partners were, which he then got the answer of that the others have already been called to the scene while they were on their way to the Ministry. It was out of coincident that the people who found the body were the Weasley twins, who were gathering their supplies for their joke shop in Hogsmeade and immediately called Ron and Ginny. But Seamus claimed that that was all the outlines he got from Dean when he sent his patronus to him, telling him to bring Harry and Neville over to the pub.

* * *

When the three wizards apparated to the shopfront of The Three Broomsticks it was surrounded by the masses, all chattering and craning their necks trying to see to the interior of the pub. Magical barriers could be seen shimmering around the outer space of the building, though, keeping the crowd backed away.

Harry and the others went into the pub through the barriers, chanting the passcode, which the Department made to identify their relevance during any investigations to pass through these barriers, as they go.

Upon entering the building, they saw a woman – dead, obviously the body that was found – sat at one of the tables in the corners, her upper body was hunched, her head slumped against the tabletop, and her mouth opened up forming a small 'o' shape. The marked spot where magical lines were shimmering, indicating the area of which the body was found was drawn underneath her and her surroundings. There was no blood anywhere to be seen.

Ron and Ginny were speaking to Madam Rosmerta, while Dean stood at the doorway, clearly waiting for them to show up. Two pairs of Hit Wizards were seemingly investigating the surrounding areas and objects near the dead victim, flicking their wands to collect the evidences.

Harry nodded to Dean, left the three of them there and walked to where the Hit Wizards were occupied. He gestured to them as greeting and took out a pair of gloves from his robe pockets and put them on before he lowered himself to examine the dead witch's deathly pale face.

He sent a silent apology to the dead, put his hand over her eyes – which was wide open – and closed them solemnly. He put his gloved finger inside the opened mouth and plucked it to open a bit more for him to look at her teeth. There was no sign of purpling on the gems or any blacking on the teeth, which were what he was looking for as he suspected a poisoning possibility. Finding nothing, he cleaned the gloved finger that had poked into the oral cavity with a nonverbal spell and observed the objects which were placed on the table the woman occupied before she died.

There was a light meal of half-eaten chicken sandwich and a cup of still warm butterbeer, though it didn't look as though it was largely consumed, for it was still more than half-full. He was about to cast the spell that would show him whether there was any poison in the food and drink when a hand got on his shoulder and he turned around to find Ron standing next to him.

Ron acknowledged the Hit wizards nearby who were now finishing up their collecting of evidence, and then turned to Harry, "You found anything?" He asked.

Harry shook his head, and asked him in turn, "You?"

Ron inclined his head, "Not much. Madam Rosmerta said the victim came around an hour ago, ordered what was on the table, though after she served her Madam Rosmerta went back to her work, until a moment later, she didn't know how long it was, a thud sounded and everyone started screaming, she turned around to find this," he gestured the table, and went on. "The twins were just passing outside when the chaos erupted and they came in, saw this and used their patronus and called me and Ginny here right away, although they left after we got here, and had to go to their shop. We could call them in later and ask them of what they witnessed before any of us got here, though." Harry gave a nod in agreement. "Dean was with us so we came here together, and he called Seamus to pick you guys up and over. Ginny went to call Hermione here; we'd better get her to check the body for initial examinations before we do anything further."

Harry nodded, and asked, "Does anyone know her? Is she a patron?"

"Madam Rosmerta says her name was Elena White, a Muggleborn. According to Madam Rosmerta, she often comes here regularly, about twice or so every week. Usually in the mornings."

Harry nodded again, and then turned to bid the Hit Wizards goodbye when they gathered up their things and were about to return to the office. They have taken the butterbeer and that plate of sandwich with them, the body was not their responsibility as they only take evidences that are objects.

The pair went to meet the others at the doorway, the pub was already cleared out of irrelevant people save for Madam Rosmerta and two staffs at the bar. The crowd was dismissed by force when the Hit Wizards left the scene. The team stood there in silence, minds all reeling with all sorts of possibilities while waiting for Hermione to show up.

Hermione is the coroner in the Ministry. She went back to Muggle London to further her university studies and came back with a degree major in autopsy. She joined the six of them after her appeal was approved by Kingsley, the Head Auror, to be involved in as a member of the Auror department, helping them with the examinations of the dead victims and determining the reason of their deaths.

A couple of minutes later Hermione arrived and went straight to work. As there were no physical injuries on the body, she took a sample of the victim's blood and did a simple test for reactions of poisoning. She casted the spell of which Harry was intended to a moment ago, and frowned at the result when the diagram showed negative.

She turned to her best friend and fiancé after vanishing the image with a flick of her wrist, and said, "I can't find any poisoning reactions in her blood. This is quite unusual. I need to further examine the body at my lab and see if her death was caused by any disease or sickness she had. You cannot determine whether it's a suicide or murder before I report its condition anyway." She then gestured the other four, who came surrounding them when she came and checked on the body, to bring the victim's body back to the Ministry.

Harry nodded, "I suspect that this is a poisoning case, though." He glanced at Hermione, and then sighed, "But you're right, I cannot be sure until you've lodged your report."

"Exactly. And I need to check with the Hit Wizards with the evidences as well. I will see you back at the Ministry." She said, and then followed Ginny and the others out of the pub as they started to levitate the body back with them.

Harry and Ron exchanged a look before they promptly did the same.

* * *

As it turns out, once after they have all arrived back at the Ministry, the twins were summoned. Though unfortunately they actually were not much help at all because when they stumbled upon the scene, the victim was already gone. To what exactly that could have killed the witch at a blink of an eye, they'd have to wait until Hermione was done and then determine further means of courses.

The witch, Elena White, as given by Madam Rosmerta, after a search in the Ministry's archive, was found to be indeed a Muggleborn. Both her parents were Muggles, much like Hermione, aged thirty-two, attended Hogwarts eight years before them which explained why they have never seen or known her, and were a Ravenclaw. Though that was all the information they could retrieve about her, seemingly as she does not associate with any of the others and did not have a job. Again forcing their investigation to halt at a dead end.

Hermione bustled into the office where the pack of six were waiting for her, a folder clutched in her hand. All of them moved at once when she stepped into their line of vision, and gathered up hovering around Harry's desk, as Hermione was marching straight to him.

She placed the folder in front of Harry, who looked at her expectantly before lowering his gaze to the folder. Hermione opened the folder up before he could say anything or considering doing it himself, and flipped a few pages before her slender index finger stabbed at a line of phrase where she had highlighted.

"You're right. The victim's poisoned. I found this result after using a few Muggle methods as magic didn't indicate anything for me." She tapped the spot with her finger, and continued. "It's batrachotoxin. A poison that produces from the poisonous dart frogs that took habitats in the Amazon rainforests in South America. And I've confirmed it with the results from her food she digested before her death with the Hit Wizards, which indicated that the results were the same."

Harry nodded, digesting the information Hermione just gave them, though was curious as to the effects of this frog poison as Hermione claimed to be. So he questioned aloud, "What does this kind of poison do to cause the death?"

Hermione closed the folder and put it aside, grab a piece of parchment laying around on the table and a quill, and then started to draw up a human diagram while she explains to them.

"The poison of the dart frogs is one of the most deadly poisons in the world. Once absorbed by human body, it would first travel into the blood vessels and attacks the nerves, especially those around the heart, and then breathing will become impossible for the victim and cause asphyxiation, which leads to cardiac arrest and ultimately death." She added after having observed their reactions, "And this all happens in a matter of seconds."

"Oh Merlin." Ginny gasped, face drained of colour.

Harry frowned at the drawn diagram while Ron asked what everyone else was thinking. "So you think this is a murder? Or a suicide?"

Hermione shook her head, her eyes bright. "Most likely been a case of murder." She paused, as though trying to find the right words to express her thoughts before she continued. "As I said, the frogs that produce this kind of poison reside in the Amazon rainforests, and that's in South America, which is miles from here. It is possible, though _illegal_, that someone had smuggled the poison into England and, well, got his or her first victim."

Harry nodded and placed the diagram into the folder with the rest of the examination report, his mind was already working out procedures which would form the investigation. As they couldn't find any witness or people who relate to White, whether friends or family, there is only little much that they could do. For the time being. He handed the folder back to Hermione and spoke out clear to give out his orders.

"Hermione, please do me a favour and hand the folder for Kingsley to see, explain what you've told us to him. Actually, I'll go with you. I am going to ask him for the consent to take over this case from the Hit Wizards and process our investigation. Dean and Seamus, I need you two to research on whatever you could find that has relevance and reference to this batrachotoxin poison, find as much as you possibly can. Ginny and Neville, you two go contact with the Ministry of Magic in Brazil, ask for their cooperation in this investigation and see if you could find any information on missing medical use poisons or similar cases there. Ron, I need you to go contact the Wizarding frontier inspection stations and see if there were any foreigners who came into the country from around two months before, grab a list."

He finished and looked at them silently asking whether they understood their jobs or not. When he received a nod of confirmation from each one of them, he clapped his hand and stood up, ready to leave and go with Hermione to see Kingsley.

"Come back here before the end of the day and report what each of us found. Dismissed."

Everyone jumped into action.

* * *

It was about five hours later that the office was once again filled with occupants. Harry and Hermione returned last though, but from the satisfied gleam that seems to flicker in Harry's eyes, the others suspected that this case has indeed been handed over to them to investigate on.

Everyone went into the meeting room and sat about the lone table that was in the room, waiting for all to settle down and begin their exchange of information and discussion about the case. Harry took seat opposite Ron with Hermione next to him, holding out an official document-like parchment before him. It was an approval of case transfer.

"Right. How did the search go? Any difficulties or good results?" Harry began, and then he maintained eye contacts with Ron, and gestured for him to start off. "How did yours go, Ron?"

Ron pulled out a piece of folded parchment from his pockets, unfolding it while he answered. "Not much, but I did manage to obtain a few names, though it seemed none of them were from South America." He then tapped his wand on the parchment and a duplicated image hovered above the table, showing out a total of six names for everyone to see. The image disappeared a moment later even as the same list materialised itself before the others.

Harry picked it up and scanned the names, finding none of them clicking with his memory. He sighed and put it down again, "I have no idea who these people are, I guess we have to ask around then, I doubt the Ministry archive have profiles of them. They're foreigners, after all."

Ron shrugged, agreeing. "Yeah, or maybe just ask Hermione. Living encyclopaedia and all."

The others snickered while Hermione glared.

Ginny and Neville were the next to report. Although their findings were nearly slim to none. The Brazil Ministry gave the response of that they will look into their medicine and poison stocks and contact them at a later date. They claim they have not received or seen any cases alike, and will also be preventing it taking their request and incident as a warning. Harry could not help himself at the urge of rolling his eyes at that. Guess Ministries of Magic are equally hopeless no matter where in the world it was located.

Nothing to be proud of in their information-gathering so far, and so Harry looked at Dean and Thomas expectantly when they were the remaining group to report, trying not to be too hopeful.

"And you guys?" He asked, hardly suppressing a sigh.

Seamus started gesturing with his hands even before he opens his mouth. Dean was faster, though, and ceased Seamus' body language at once.

"We did some record search at first, but unfortunately there aren't really much about that poison. I am guessing that that was pretty much because it's a foreign poison, and Ministry's recording has always been oh-so-strict. And even so since this poison, according to Hermione," he inclined his head at her. "Is one of the most fatal poisons in the world, which can be classified as _dangerous_. So to be honest we didn't put our hopes in finding anything on paper-"

"Oh, but we _did_ find something!" Seamus interrupted by exclaiming abruptly, waving his arms about once again. "We went to the potions masters! And guess what?" He grinned.

One would think that nobody can be _enthusiastic _when investigating a murdering case – or, since it cannot be determined at the moment, cases that involves people _dying_, but that's Seamus Finnigan for you. He's not unsympathetic or not being serious towards the case, it was just the way he is.

"What?" The others chorused. Dean just shook his head and gave a slight sigh at his partner.

"Those potions masters say they don't know much about the poisons, as it's not their area of expertise, claiming that they studied potions for medical use, not seeking any poisonous results from any of their experiments. They've ever only used minor poisons that wouldn't even harm a kitty." He rolled his eyes and exhaled dramatically. "Or so they say. But they did give us somewhere, or rather, someone to go to. We didn't go, though."

Harry raised an eyebrow questioningly.

Luckily, Dean took over the microphone. He seems to be hesitating for a moment before he nodded slightly and began.

"We know that for the sake of investigating cases there shouldn't be any hesitation or unwillingness. But this person… let's just say I, or we, really don't have the confidence in confronting. He's brilliant in his own ways, best potions master in the office, or really, the whole Britain, since Snape retired years ago already. But I just don't think I can stand his taunts and sneers without snapping at him." Beside him, Seamus nodded every now and then.

Harry was frowning when Dean started his speech, but during it his expression was slowly changing as realization hit him and by the end, he was not sure how he was feeling.

"Are you implying what I think you're implying? About this… _brilliant_ Potions Master in our Ministry office?" He asked tentatively.

"Depends on what you think I am implying."

"You don't mean… Draco Malfoy?" Again the tentativeness.

"_WHAT?_" Ron exploded incredulously before Dean could even utter a response, springing to his feet. "You _can't _be serious. We are _not _going to _him_ for help!"

"Ronald Weasley, sit down." Both Hermione and Ginny scolded in unison.

Ron gaped at them, mouth opening and closing a few times looking very much like a fish squirming on land. But being a victim under their combined intense glares, nobody could last longer than possibly a record of more than thirty seconds, he grumbled and sat down reluctantly, letting Harry continuing on.

Seamus flashed his teeth at Harry in a wide grin, "Bingo! Those potions masters told us Malfoy's quite an expert in poisons. Fits him, don't you think?"

Harry resisted the urge to cover his eyes with his hands and shake his head. Although he always knew that Malfoy was working in the Ministry as well, never had he thought that they would one day be seeking his assistance.

Ever since the end of the second war, six year ago, Draco Malfoy had kept a low profile of himself after Harry had testified for his trial and prevented him from being sent to Azkaban, he was sentenced to serve three years of community service at the Ministry. Because of his superb skills and talent in Potions – and probably his _only _talent, Harry concluded – he was placed in the Potions developing department and after three years of completing his service, he took apprentice under one of the Potions Masters (though Harry suspected he was also trained under Snape), and now am the proud and name-deserving Potions Master Malfoy, as people addresses him now as, himself.

Even if he kept his low profile intact, his snarky attitude was surely firmly intact as well.

But there were already too few facts to continue on their search, and Harry will be damned if he'd let any possible outcomes slip away. Arch nemesis or not, he would go to _anyone_ who could be holding a leading source, even if that person was Voldemort himself. If Malfoy is the one that may help them to get out of this plight, then he will go to him, if no one else will.

Harry came back to himself from his thoughts only to find the others staring at him, all waiting for his decision as to the next step of action.

"Well…? What should we do now, Harry?" Dean asked.

Harry nodded resolutely as if reassuring himself, and then meeting with everyone's eyes, he instructed, "Ron, Ginny and Neville, you guys keep on contacting with the facilities, urge the Brazil Ministry if you have to, we can't afford to have any escapes of information. Keep an eye on those names on the list if you happen to see them appearing anywhere. Dean and Seamus, good work, keep on researching if you'd like. And Hermione," he turned to the witch next to him, "could it be possible for you to track any Muggle records on the use of this poison? Anything would be a help now." He asked.

Hermione beamed and nodded to him, her enthusiasm at researching stirred to a being in her. "Sure, Harry."

Harry nodded back to her, muttering a thanks, and then turned back to the others.

"As for Malfoy, leave him to me."

He will go see Malfoy tomorrow, and hoped that it will be worth it.


End file.
